Staffa

0.30 km² of land in the Sea of the Hebrides.

N 0.1 km

Ferry portsPeaks

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

0.30km²

Area

4km

Coastline

42m

Highest point

People

14°C

Warmest sea

August

771km

To the mainland

When to go to Staffa

Good all year round.

The sea is warmest in August (14 °C) and coolest in March (8 °C). The water never reaches 21 °C: bring a wetsuit.

9°7°5°

Jan23

8°7°5°

Feb20

8°8°5°

Mar20

8°9°6°

Apr17

10°12°8°

May16

12°14°11°

Jun18

13°15°12°

Jul20

14°15°13°

Aug22

14°14°12°

Sep20

13°12°10°

Oct22

12°10°8°

Nov23

10°8°6°

Dec23

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

Staffa is an island in United Kingdom. It belongs to Inner Hebrides. It covers 0.30 km², with 4 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 42 m. Nobody lives on it. The nearest mainland is 771 km away.

Getting there

Tiree Airport (TRE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 33 km in a straight lineCar hire at GLA airport (Glasgow)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
FerriesFionnphort-Staffa
771 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Car hire at GLA airport (Glasgow)Discover CarsSee

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Staffa.

1viewpoints
1ferry terminals
2named peaksMeall nan Gamhna, Meallan Fulann

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 17 m above the sea. 100 % of it is below 200 m.

100 %0–50 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Staffa0 km²

Alcatraz Island0 km²

0.2 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Month by month

The weather on the island.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon high (°C)	7	7	8	9	12	14	15	15	14	12	10	8
Night low (°C)	5	5	5	6	8	11	12	13	12	10	8	6
Sea (°C)	9	8	8	8	10	12	13	14	14	13	12	10
Rain (mm)	180	131	122	84	101	104	119	142	134	174	167	182
Wet days	23	20	20	17	16	18	20	22	20	22	23	23
Sun h/day	0.3	1.9	3.8	6.4	7.6	7.0	6.2	5.3	3.8	2.2	0.7	0.1
Wind (km/h)	32	30	27	23	21	19	19	20	24	27	30	30

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	+0.3	±0.0	+0.3	+0.4	+0.3	+0.4	−0.1	+0.1	+0.1	−0.1	+0.3	+0.3
2021	−0.7	−0.2	+0.3	+0.2	±0.0	−0.2	+1.4	+0.8	+0.5	+0.4	+0.6	+0.4
2022	+0.5	+0.6	+0.9	+0.6	+0.7	+0.5	±0.0	+0.2	+0.9	+0.6	+1.2	+0.9
2023	+1.0	+0.9	+0.9	+0.9	+0.9	+1.8	+1.1	+1.0	+1.2	+1.0	+0.9	+0.5
2024	+0.8	+1.0	+0.9	+0.7	+1.2	−0.2	−0.2	−0.3	+0.2	+0.2	+0.4	+0.5
2025	+0.9	+0.7	+0.9	+1.1	+1.5	+0.5	+0.8	+0.8	+0.8	+0.6	+0.9	+0.6

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

Photos

Seen by visitors.

Staffa harbour 14705k — Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0

Staffa beside 14624 — Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0

Scotland-Staffa-Fingals-Cave-1900 — Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain

Fingal's Cave, Staffa Island 01 — Luk~commonswiki · CC BY-SA 4.0

Nearby

More islands nearby.

Isle of Mull

United Kingdom883 km²966 m21 km away

Iona

United Kingdom8.5 km²97 m13 km away

Ulva

United Kingdom18 km²313 m10 km away

Tiree

United Kingdom79 km²141 m34 km away

Jura

United Kingdom363 km²785 m54 km away

Colonsay

United Kingdom41 km²135 m42 km away

Islay

United Kingdom615 km²491 m75 km away

Eigg

United Kingdom30 km²393 m53 km away

About these numbers

Names, area, population	Wikidata (Q250117) · CC0
Outline	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Sea temperature	NOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
Climate	NASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Towns	GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

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